With the rising costs of health care, and the growing demographics of baby boomers, health administrators are always looking for savings. A new and provocative study out of the Indiana University suggests that computer modelling can choose better and less-expensive treatments than the physicians alone, resulting in a 50% reduction in costs and 40% increase in patient outcomes.

By using a new framework that employs sequential decision-making, the previous single-decision research can be expanded into models that simulate numerous alternative treatment paths out into the future; maintain beliefs about patient health status over time even when measurements are unavailable or uncertain; and continually plan/re-plan as new information becomes available. In other words, it can “think like a doctor.”

Although Derrick Harris at Digacom states that nobody is suggesting we replace physicians with computers, he does point out other advances in this area:

IBM has been banging this drum loudly, most recently with two new commercial versions of its Watson system — one of which is designed to determine the best-possible course of treatment for lung cancer patient by analyzing their situations against a library of millions of pages of clinical evidence and medical research.

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Canadian Health Law contains updates and articles about the intersection of health and law in Canada. It is written and edited entirely by professionals who work in this area.
The site is edited by Omar Ha-Redeye.
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Contributors

Alexander Rozine is an associate at Barapp Law, a personal injury firm located in Toronto.

John Greiss obtained his pharmacy and law degrees at the University of Alberta. His current interests surround pharmaceutical and healthcare law in Ontario and Canada.